The Cincy Blues Fest returns for its 21st annual event this weekend

This weekend, the Cincy Blues Fest — presented annually by
the Cincy Blues Society — returns for its 21st year, a remarkable
accomplishment for a music festival of any sort. The festival kicks off
tonight and continues tomorrow at Sawyer Point along the riverfront.

The weekend features two main stage acts with serious ties
to Cincinnati’s Blues past. Educator, author, DJ, singer and harmonica
player Steven Tracy returns to Cincy to play the main stage on tonight
at 7 p.m. with his band the Crawling Kingsnakes. A Walnut Hills High
School graduate, Tracy worked with local Blues icons like Pigmeat
Jarrett and Big Joe Duskin, becoming a part of the scene he’d later dig
deeper into in the 1993 book, Going to Cincinnati: A History of the Blues in the Queen City.
His writing career is extensive — Tracy has written dozens of album
liner notes and edited/wrote/intro-ed several other books on a variety
of subjects. Today, Tracy is a professor of Afro-American Studies at
University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Saturday at 6 p.m. on the fest’s main stage, Stacy
Mitchhart and his band are slated to perform. Mitchhart grew up in
Cincinnati and spent time playing music on the East and West Coasts
before returning to his hometown in the early 1990s and forming Stacy
Mitchhart and Blues-U-Can-Use, a staple on the local Blues scene for a
few years. After a move to Nashville, Tenn., in the mid-’90s,
Mitchhart’s musical career really took off. His albums have been widely
acclaimed and done well commercially — his 2011 release, Live from B.B. King’s, debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard
Blues charts — and he’s received high-praise for his showmanship and
remarkable Blues voice. In 2008, Mitchhart was the subject of the
well-received documentary NashVegas Blues.

Here is tonight's main stage schedule:

5:45-6:45 p.m. Dave Muskett

7:00-8:15 p.m. Steve Tracy & the Crawling Kingsnakes

8:30-10 p.m. Reba Russell Band

10:15-11:45 p.m. Watermelon Slim & the Workers

And here's the lineup for the Main Stage tomorrow:

4:15-4:45 p.m. Blues in the Schools (BITS) Band

5-5:45 p.m. The Juice

6-7 p.m. Stacy Mitchhart Band

7:15-8:30 p.m. Nikki Hill

8:45-10:00 p.m. Honey Island Swamp Band

10:15-11:45 p.m. Ana Popovic (all the way from Serbia!)

Some of the coolest things at the Cincy Blues Fest can be
found on the “specialty” stages — a “specialty” of the fest — which this
year includes a “Women of the Blues” stage on Friday, headlined by
national act EG Knight and also featuring locals Rio & The Ramblers,
The Juice and Tempted Souls Band.

Here is the "Women of the Blues" stage ((aka the Arches stage) schedule for tonight :

5:45-7 p.m. Rio & the Ramblers

7:15-8:30 p.m. The Juice

8:45-10:00 p.m. Tempted Souls Band

10:15-11:45 p.m. EG Kight

Saturday sees the return of the “Boogie Woogie Hall of
Fame Piano Stage,” featuring an international cast of top-shelf Boogie
Woogie pianists, including local favorite Ricky Nye and former locals
(now Florida-based) Liz Pennock & Dr. Blues. The house band for the
Boogie Woogie stage is Johnny Vidacovich (drums), George Bedard (guitar)
and Chris Douglas (bass).

The Blues Fest again presents the St. Vincent De Paul Local
Stage on both days of the event, always an excellent snapshot of the
current local Blues scene.

Friday's St. Vincent De Paul Local Stage schedule:

5:45-6:45 p.m. Thomas Long & Blue Sacrifice

7-8 p.m. Noah Wotherspoon Band

8:15-9:15 p.m. Ralph & the Rhythm Hounds

9:30-10:30 p.m. Brad Hatfield Band

10:45 p.m.-12 a.m. G Miles & the Hitmen

Saturday's St. Vincent De Paul Local Stage lineup:

4:30-5:30 p.m. The Blue Birds Big Band

5:45-6:45 p.m. Jay Jesse Johnson Band

7-8 p.m. The SoulFixers

8:15-9:15 p.m. Doug Hart Band

9:30-10:30 p.m. Chuck Brisbin & the Tuna Project

10:45 p.m.-12 a.m. Leroy Ellington Blues Band

Here is a map of the Blues Fest grounds:

Tickets are $15 for Friday, $20 for Saturday or $25 for a
two-day pass (tickets can be purchased at the gates or here). Visit
cincybluesfest.org for everything else you need to know about the
festival.

One of the oldest free series of its kind in the region, the It’s Commonly Jazz
showcases have now been running for 28 years, presenting marquee
artists like Eddie Harris, McCoy Tyner, Javon Jackson and David
“Fathead” Newman.

The free series — running every Thursday in August (lucky
Jazz fans get five events this year) — returns to the outdoor Seasongood
Pavilion in Eden Park tonight. The opening show features renowned
saxophonist Craig Bailey.

Cincinnati's The Sundresses expand to a quartet with impressive results

There is an old homily which quite wisely states that if something is operating properly, it might be considered imprudent to attempt a repair.

Or, in a slightly less circuitous manner of speaking, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

For well over a decade, the Sundresses have been anything but broken. Brad Schnittger, Jeremy Springer and Makenzie Place have been churning out a visceral pretzel logic version of the Blues with elements of manic Swing, hot foot Jazz, brutal Punk and blistering Indie Rock, heated to the temperature of molten rock and detonated over unsuspecting audiences with an animalistic ferocity. A formula like that is both tremulously volatile and erratically perfect. Why would anyone feel the need to take a wrench to it?

Needed or not, a-wrenching they have gone; for the first time in The Sundresses' long history, the tight-knit trio has added a new full fledged member with the hiring of former Dukes Are Dead drummer Dave Reid. The new lineup was unveiled on July 19 for the band's appearance at the MidPoint Indie Summer Series on Fountain Square, and then again a week later when The Sundresses tore through a set at the Mad Love for Mad Anthony benefit at the Southgate House Revival.

Rabid fans and casual observers may have differing opinions on how Reid's addition will impact the Sundresses going forward, but one thing is certain; this was anything but a routine lineup decision. Bringing in a permanent drummer changes the group dynamic, eliminates one of the band's most popular and unique live features and may actually set the stage for broader success.

After 13 hard fought calendars, the Sundresses have recorded sporadically — a few EPs, a split with Dylan Ewing's 4192, a pair of brilliant studio documents (2003's The Only Tourist in Town, 2008's Barkinghaus) and Off, their scalding and ingeniously marketed 2010 live album — and toured relentlessly, without a great deal of forward progress being notched. The trio has always generated a good deal of extremely positive press, and their string of five trips to Austin for South by Southwest has to stand as some kind of local record.

My personal obsession with the Sundresses began at their first SXSW appearance in 2004, which coincided with my first trip to Austin for the festival. As it turned out, the band's gig at the Blender Balcony was only the ninth out-of-town show in their two-year history, and I felt as though I had just witnessed the cosmic birth of a great musical entity. I still feel that way. I drank more than a dipperful of The Sundresses' Kool-Aid that night, and I've been feverishly blathering on about them ever since to anyone who will listen.

For whatever reasons, the brass ring of label offers and more tangible measures of success have eluded The Sundresses. At the same time, the trio has remained committed to the cause and continued to pursue their singular vision with an almost psychotic tenacity and zealous passion. And their focused determination may have made it difficult for those of us who love them unconditionally to admit that there was indeed a fundamental issue that may have been blocking their path.

From the very start, Brad and Jeremy envisioned and executed one of their most cherished gimmicks, namely their patented guitar/drum switch; at their 2005 SXSW show, Jeremy informed the audience, "You were supposed to close your eyes..." It has long been an admittedly fabulous element of their live presentation, but it may have been so entertainingly original that it became a detriment.

The basic issue may be that Brad plays drums with the subtlety and invention of a studied and seasoned beatkeeper and Jeremy plays with the brute force of a blacksmith hammering on an anvil. Both approaches to playing the drums have legitimate advantages and both clearly have a role in shaping the diverse sonic identity that the trio has been trying to define since forming The Sundresses in 2002.

Although it may never have been perceived as a problem, the difficulty with rotating drummers is that Makenzie — who learned how to play bass in order to be a part of the band — has had to adjust her groove based on those two very distinct drum styles. In essence, the Sundresses' rhythm section has never really had an opportunity to build a discernible foundation.

With Dave behind the kit, that opportunity becomes a reality.

Based on the Sundresses' roaring set at the Mad Anthony benefit on July 26, the band's newly established rhythm section has already started paying dividends. Makenzie is now locked into a single percussionist and she and Dave collectively control the band's tempo. Dave has the latitude to incorporate Jeremy's power and Brad's nuance into his singular drum repertoire and Makenzie is learning the joy of shifting gears without changing cars.

Relying on primarily new and largely unrecorded material, The Sundresses blazed through an all-too-brief ten song set with a rejuvenated energy that smacked of their early days. Opening with the swinging funky Blues of the brand new "Banker's Blues" and the loping howl of the equally fresh "Whisper Touch," the quartet bounced megawatt riffs through every body and against every conceivable surface in the Revival's sanctuary. They slowed down a shade for a spin through Hank Williams' "Ramblin' Man," and Jeremy's quick documentary on the size of MA guitarist Ringo Jones' manhood before tearing into another relatively new track, "Zap a Deux," but it was all good in the hood regardless of speed or sonic profile. Finishing up with longtime faves "Hey! Hey! Bang! Bang!" and the propulsively jumping "Larry Nixon," the Sundresses gave both a glimpse at the sound of their much-anticipated third studio outing, hopefully coming out before the end of the year, and the direction they'll be taking as a quartet.

Perhaps one of the more interesting side effects from The Sundresses' expansion is the fact that Jeremy and Brad are now playing guitar together, which means their distinct stylistic differences are blending and cross-pollinating rather than occupying discernibly different spaces within the set. As they become more acclimated to this arrangement, and as Makenzie and Dave fully tune up the engine they've just rebuilt, it's bound to have an incredible impact on the songs they start writing. As it stands, the songs The Sundresses have already written sound magnificent coming from the newly minted quartet, proving once again that even the best can get better

Freshly-inducted Rock and Roll Hall of Famers play Riverbend Saturday

Heart introduced a fresh, rebellious sound in the early
1970s when a particular voice was truly needed. That timeless voice
belonged to singer Ann Wilson. In a time when the female frontwoman was
just gaining steam, Heart found their identity in theirs. To this day
Wilson embodies the band’s sound and message. She helped make it
possible for generations of others to find their voice in Rock &
Roll.

The band's legacy was celebrated on a grand scale this
year when Ann, her sister, guitarist Nancy Wilson, and the rest of the
Heart family were inducted into the 2013 class of the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame with the likes of fellow legendary groups Rush and Public
Enemy.

CityBeat had the privilege of speaking with the
legendary vocalist in advance of Heart's performance Saturday at
Riverbend Music Center. Audiences can anticipate hearing classics like
“Barracuda” and "Crazy on You," as well as fresh music off of the 2012
album Fanatic, which nicely continues the Heart legacy. Don’t
miss the finale with Jason Bonham (opening the show with his Led
Zeppelin tribute) joining them on stage.

CityBeat: What was the highlight of your Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction this year?

Ann Wilson: The highlight of my (RRHOF) induction
this year was standing beside Nancy at the podium. That was a feeling of
great pride I will never forget.

CB: What is the most number of days you have gone without playing music?

AW: I have gone months sometimes without playing a guitar, but never a day goes by where I don't sing.

CB: What does your ideal day look like these days?

AW: Sleep in late, have a great pilates/yoga
workout, hang out with my kids and their kids, cook dinner, meditate,
sleep with my dog nearby.

CB: If you could trade places with someone for a month who would it be and why?

AW: I guess I couldn't do that. I don't envy anyone else that much!

CB: You have seen music recording formats
change from vinyl and 8-track to cassette, CD and MP3 through the
years. Do you feel like music sounds better or worse with the use of
technology?

AW: Music definitely sounds worse to my ears
because of digital technology. There is a hard, brittle sound to it.
Analog music sounded warmer and deeper, though maybe not as " perfect."
Auto-Tune makes me crazy because it removes all individuality from a
person's voice. Everyone ends up sounding anonymous. The imperfections
are where the soul is, I say leave them in. Leave in the humanity.

CB: How did the latest tour come about with Jason Bonham? Any favorite tour stories from the current tour?

AW: Many people saw the Kennedy Center Honors show
on TV or YouTube and loved the tribute to Led Zeppelin. The management
was listening and everyone agreed it would be a beautiful idea. We've
only done two weeks so far, and it's been amazing. No train wrecks yet!

CB: Do you journal or take photos over the years with special tour memories. How do you document your stories and memories?

AW: We record every night and have photographers on
sight. Occasionally I will blog, but I am usually pretty wound up after
a show. Maybe this will be the year I take up a journal. A person can't
count on their memory forever!!

CB: Does it ever get tough being on the road with family? How have you handled it for so many years?

AW: Yes, the road is rough. Traveling and
performing together takes a lot out of you and sometimes things do get
emotional. We are lucky to have each other for support. I don't know how
I would have made it all these years without Nancy's love, strength and
sense of humor!

CB: Are you working on new music while on the road?

AW: My head is full of new songs at the moment.

CB: What can fans looks forward to when the tour hits Cincinnati?

AW: The show in Cincinnati will open with Jason
Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience, Next will be the heart show, after
which there will be a finale consisting of about 30 minutes of Zeppelin
songs with Jason Bonham and (Bonham's guitarist) Tony Catania joining
in.

Legendar rocker to perform 'Thick as a Brick' and more at PNC Pavilion Saturday

Jethro Tull's unique sound — which eloquently combines
Rock, Blues, and Classical music — continues to outlast Father Time and
thrill legions of dedicated fans. Leader/singer/Rock flautist
extraordinaire Ian Anderson performs the classic Tull album Thick as a Brick (and more, including Thick as a Brick II) at Riverbend's PNC Pavilion Saturday night at 8 p.m., continuing the legacy of Tull’s self-proclaimed “music for grown-ups.”

CityBeat was able to speak with Anderson this week about protests, social issues and his thoughts on performance art.

CityBeat: Why did decide to bring the flute to Rock music?

Ian Anderson: When I was a young aspiring guitar
player in my late teens I became aware of Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and
Richard Blackmore, who were the hot-shot guitar players down in London,
and I decided maybe I should switch from guitar and find something else
to play. The shiny precision of the flute, the ergonomics, the design,
the manufacture — it’s kind of like a Swiss watch. It appeals to my
sense of physics and engineering. For a particularly good reason, other
than the way it looks, I decided I would give that a go. I learned to
play it by trying to imitate the lines I played on guitar — solos and
rifts. So I became the flute player in a Blues band and I was the only flute player in a Blues band, which gave me the difference that helped Jethro Tull stand out from the crowd.

CB: One of my favorites on Thick as a Brick II is “Adrift and Dumbfounded.” Can you tell me a little bit of the story behind that song or how it came about?

IA: Having been picketed a couple nights ago in
Kansas City by the Westboro Church, the “Godhatesfags.com” people … I am
seen as a fag-hyphen-enabler according to that unworthy organization. I
don’t think I am a homosexual, but I am a supporter of gay rights and a
lot of my friends and people close to me are gay people and I find that
the prejudices and difficulties faced by young people, particularly in
post-puberty, where they are sometimes questioning their gender and
their physiology because some people are just born that way … so, it is a
difficult time for relationships with parents and for society around
you.

It’s difficult now. Back in the ’60s, it was really scary.
So at the time when homosexuality wasn’t just a predilection but an
actual crime, punishable by the courts by incarceration, being gay was a
difficult position for any young person to be in, so I decided I would
write a parent’s perspective of what that may be like — to lose a child
through lack of communication and understanding with the parental, to
lose that child to drugs and to, essentially, male prostitution.

That is an extreme scenario but it happens out there in
the world. These are issues that face society today. These are issues
that have faced society throughout the history of mankind. These days I
suppose we are more able to talk about it and to examine the
possibilities themselves. I always have to think when I was 15 years old
and a little unsure of myself, maybe that could have happened to me. I
try to use some of my personal history with my parents, with the lack of
communication, particular on matters of sex. I try to extrapolate a
little on my own limited experiences in that world.

CB: The Westboro Baptist Church never ceases to amaze me. How did you handle it that day?

IA: I was rather hoping to see them in the flesh.
Unfortunately, I had my spies out. I had my spies out to try to keep an
eye out because I tried to get a photograph opportunity with these
people. Unfortunately, at the time, I guess they showed up when the
audience was coming in or going out. When the audience is coming in, I
am busy in my dressing room changing and tuning up my guitar.
Afterwards, I am busy changing again and packing up my instruments.
Unfortunately, I did not get to see them. That is very disappointing. I
was really hoping to have the opportunity to have a nice smiling
photograph with them and their evil representatives.

CB: Why did you choose this tour to play the Thick as a Brick albums in their entireties?

IA: When you are planning any kind of stage show,
your first obligation is to keep it on a level that will engage people
and keep it interesting for them and present them with a lengthy piece
of musical work with a 15-minute intermission. You have to put your
thinking cap on and try to construct everything to keep the audience
with you, especially if you are playing a lot of music (with) which the
audience is unfamiliar, you have got to make it work the first time
around. It is not the result of hearing it many times so you have to
make it a piece of working entertainment.

It seems to be successful because I have yet to see, when I
go onto the second half of the show, any empty seats as a result of
people leaving at halftime. Normally people stay until the end of the
show and they seem to follow the momentum of the whole show. You get a
personal sense of achievement when you present a large amount of
relatively unknown music and you keep people engaged and enjoying the
stage.

I don’t think many bands would attempt to do that. I can
afford to do it because, a) I am prepared to take more risks musically
and, b) I am really kind of doing it for me more than I am doing it for
the audience anyway. I have always been a musician who has gone out
there to make myself happy. You have to really have your own personal
goals you achieve every night in performance. Primarily, I will say, it
is nice you folks are here as well, but if you weren’t here, I would be
doing this anyway. I am just doing this for fun.

CB: You have seen music change in the way it is recorded over many decades. Do you think it sounds better or worse today?

IA: Music has evolved in the terms of recording
techniques over a period of about 60 years, hugely. It goes back to the
early stages of monophonic and stereophonic tape recorders, which is
what it was when I was a teenager.

When it got to the mid-’60s, it was becoming possible to
create the simplest multi-track recordings, usually using two-track
recorders, but bouncing back between the two to get a four-track sound.
The very first Beatles recordings were made that way. By the time they
got to Sgt. Pepper, they were recording with four-track and shortly on the heels of that came eight-track.

The first album I recorded was done on eight-track in
1968. That quickly evolved into 16-track and then to the most often used
standard of 24-track, which continued through the late ’80s and even in
some cases into the ’90s.

Frankly, the digital age really came about not in the ’80s
or the ’90s but in the last 10 years, because that technology began to
support 24-bit audio recording, which effectively mimics the human
hearing to detect the difference between that and the original audio
signal. We have 24-bit 96k recording, which is essentially all we need.
We don’t need to advance upon that standard. We’d have to grow new ears
before we could benefit any further resolution of earlier technology.

It is the same thing as when cameras hit the 10 mega-pixel
mark … essentially equal (to) the very best film quality of film
cameras in the last 50 or 60 or 70 years. We have now fairly commonly
cameras that will deliver resolutions of 24 megapixels, which will be
essentially much better quality you or my eye could fully appreciate.

We are there with audio and visual. We have now reached,
during these last four or five years, human physiology would have to
change for us to benefit from any increase of the resolution of the
technology we are working with now. It is as good as it needs to be. We
are there. We are done. We have reached the limit in terms of audio
recording and digital recording.

CB: Was there a single incident that changed how you approached music?

IA: Well, I suppose a single incident was the first
moment I played notes on a musical instrument, because I was aware as a
small child of music as church music and music of Big Band Wartime
Jazz, which my Father played on 78-rpm records.

It wasn’t until I was 9 years old and I acquired for a
couple of dollars a plastic Elvis Presley ukulele and I strummed my
first simple chord on the ukulele. At that point, even though the
instrument was a rubbish piece, I could actually strum some little
chords and sing along with it, and that was the magic moment of making
music the first time.

I suppose that was the single most important moment of
discovering music. There are a lot of people who never learn to play
anything on a musical instrument and I feel like they are missing out on
something. But some of them might be bungee jumpers and they feel like I
am missing out on something, because I haven’t thrown myself off a
bridge attached to a long piece of elastic.

CB: What is your ideal day look like these days?

IA: It depends if I’m on tour. My ideal day is to
wake up around 7 a.m. and be driving rather than flying and getting to
another city, another hotel by lunchtime, finding a Red Lobster or
McCormack & Schmidt and (eating) some seafood or that sort for lunch
and then having a rest and getting my e-mails in the afternoon before
going to sound check.

That’s kind of normal practice. If I am at home, I wake up
a little earlier, usually around 6:30 a.m. and I usually, again because
of working in different time zones, it’s a good time to check e-mails
from last night, generally prepare, shower, play with the cats, let the
dogs out. If it’s the weekends, I have to go and feed the chickens.

In my ideal world, it would be a mixture of sitting at my
office desk, playing a little bit of music and having a little bit of
time to walk around the garden and sit and talk to my cats.

CB: What is the biggest difference in touring in 2013 versus 1970?

IA: The biggest difference is you can take a little
stress (out) as you are touring easily because of more organization.
Twenty years ago and 40 years ago, travel was a lot more disorganized
that it is today. We can now be planning the next tour while we are
doing this one.

Later today and tomorrow morning when I have a little time
off, I shall be booking some internal U.S. flights for the next tour,
looking at the various cities and suggesting to my U.S. travel agent
some hotels I would like to get quotes on. Generally speaking, doing
that planning exercise, when it comes to doing the tour itself,
hopefully everything is in place. Everybody knows where everybody will
be on most hours on most days.

You can take the stress out of things these days, where it
was not so easy many years ago. We had to employ tour managers and
people to carry our bags and people to herd us like sheep through
airports. These days, people have their virtual boarding pass, which
they can collect online from the booking reference code, which was on
the tour itinerary, and they can print out their own boarding pass and
head straight to the gate. I think things are easier these days, not
because of the level of security we face now that we didn’t face 40
years ago, even 20 years ago. That makes lines a little more stressful
and perhaps a little longer in the course of the day. We allow for two
hours at airports from flight times to be safe these days, not knowing
how long security queues may be or what indignities we may have to
suffer to keep ourselves safe from the bad guys.

CB: Do you have any fond or crazy Cincinnati tour memories from the past?

IA: Probably with a Holiday Inn, Hilton or a
Marriott or two. My bonds tend to be with what my particular life throws
at me. The airport, even after all these years, is strangely familiar. I
have been tracking the evolution of the airport from the late ’70s —
when we were accosted by the children of God, doing their evangelical
work, trying to hand out bibles and stuff — all the way to today.
Airports quite often have that sense of déjà vu, even that nostalgic
memory for me — certain hotels, certain venues of course, iconic venues
we still play today.

CB: What was your favorite live performance ever?

IA: It is probably the show in an American venue
near Washington D.C. called Wolf Trap. It is my favorite because it is
the one I am going to be doing tomorrow and the one I have to focus on
and prepare for.

Past shows are in the past. I don’t dwell on those. I
don’t have favorites. I don’t have preferences, except for a couple
iconic venues, as I suggested. My favorite show is the one I am about to
go out and attempt to do because I always have to think it could be my
last. Walking on stage is not a God-given right; it is a privilege to be
able to step out there into the spotlight another time. I just take
each show as they come. My next show is always the best show of my life.

CB: What can the fans expect here in Cincinnati this weekend?

IA: They can expect all they like, but it won’t
vary one iota in delivery to them. Their expectation may be many and may
be varied, but we try to make a point of emphasis to play Brick 1 and then Brick 2, then a long call of classic repertoire.

We have a very tightly organized show. If anybody starts
shouting out during the quiet moments of the show, they will be
studiously ignored. I don’t even have time to admonish them. It happened
to me last night when I came on stage, I was astonished to hear two
female voices shouting at me in one of the spoken words sections with a
delivery of theatrical passion. You wouldn’t be considered cultured to
be shouting and whistling during a Shakespeare play — please don’t shout
and whistle during the performance of mine because I am here to do the
work. You are here to listen and if you don’t like it get up and leave.
Don’t start interrupting me.

Once in a while you get a drunkard out there that gets to
shout at your band, but it happens so rarely these days and it strikes
me as so being incredibly curious. I think our audiences do understand
this is not a regular Rock show but a theatrical presentation (for
which) they have to sit and let me do the work. That’s what I am there
for. I may be 66 years old but I am there to do a man’s work for two and
a half hours, where you can sit back and, if necessary, bring yourself a
comfy cushion and maybe a sandwich because it is a long show.

Tickets for individual MPMF.13 shows in Washington Park made available

Though there are few great excuses to not grab a three-day pass for this September's MidPoint Music Festival, stuff happens. Maybe you only have the time to catch one concert. Maybe you don't want to discover new music. Maybe you only have $20 or so to last you for the end of the year. Or maybe you're a younger music fan who can't experience any of the shows at venues that serve alcohol.

If you want to "a la carte" your MidPoint experience, the festival is ready to accommodate. Individual tickets for the MPMF concerts in Washington Park are on sale now. While the lineups are still being built, the Washington Park headliners have been announced. These tickets will guarantee you entry into the Washington Park festivities only. All shows are rain or shine.

Washington Park (as well as the open-to-the-public MidPoint Midway's many activities and performances) will be open to fans of all ages for MPMF. Here are the details so far; click the day to purchase tickets.

Ohio Hip Hop artist Ill Poetic reaches out to fans for new music video funding

Last year around this time, Ill Poetic — the Hip Hop artist who grew up in Dayton, cut his Hip Hop teeth in the Cincinnati scene and currently lives in and works out of Columbus — dropped the fantastic video for his excellent track "Gone," which was loaded with Cincinnati references and guest appearances.

Now, Ill Po (who was formerly a columnist for CityBeat) is set to release the single "Silhouette," taken from his superb Synesthesia: The Yellow Movement release (just as "Gone" was) and he's reaching out to fans (established and potential) to help make the accompanying music video he and partner David Damen of Arris Production have dreamed up.

Ill Poetic has set up one of the cooler (and comprehensively explained; let it serve as a guide for those thinking about going this route) crowd-funding projects you'll see. There are lots of great perks for various donation tiers, but also prize perks (dedicated to various Ohio Funk greats, a huge influence on the Hip Hop artist) for those who simply share the project on social media. You can even contribute via product placement if you're a business owner (at the artist's discretion, surely).

Upon completion, thanks to a distribution deal, the video will debut on VEVO. Here's the nut-shell explanation of the song and video project from the Indie GoGo page:

The centerpiece of my new EP "Synesthesia: The Yellow Movement" is a song called "Silhouette". On the surface, this is a pretty straight forward, light-hearted love song. This song, however, is directed specifically toward those ladies who are genuinely music fans. A lot of artists tend to marganalize women as a 'target demographic' they can sing some cliche love sh*t to, and forget they can be music-nerds just like most of us dudes are. The majority of females who dig my songs are genuine, intelligent music fans who often school me on records I should check out. "Silhouette" is dedicated to those women who go out to shows and buy records because music is their life.

My partner David Damen (of Arris Productions) and I have an amazing concept for the video, but we want it done right. We have shot 3 videos on shoestring budgets and have garnered over 60,000 genuine views, heartfelt emotional reactions (reactions of which people have felt in their heart) and critical acclaim (from critics who acclaim things).

Since we're starving artists who are by no means rich or corporate, we're bringing the campaign to you. We're DYING for the opportunity to shoot a video with upgraded cameras & lenses and a full video production team and we really want to tell you about it. Hence why you're reading this right now. But first, feel free to check out the 3 videos we've created to get an idea of exactly what we've already made with a strong team, no sleep, and few funds.

Check out the full Synesthesia release below and/or click on the player to grab your own copy.

Longtime local faves add permanent drummer to lineup, play Fountain Square July 19

One of the finest original bands to call Cincinnati home over the past decade or so has expanded from a trio to a quartet. The Sundresses' dark, dirty, rootsy Rock sound has been delivered by the three core members over the past 11 years, with Jeremy Springer and Brad Schnittger switching off between drums and guitar during sets (both sing).

Beginning next Friday, July 19, Springer and Schnittger will provide a double frontmen/guitarist assault with bassist Makenzie Place now teamed in rhythm with new drummer Dave Reid (The Dukes are Dead, Filthy Beast).

Springer sent along a video clip of the "new" ’Dresses' second practice with Reid behind the kit.

On July 19, Reid will be officially introduced as the band's new drummer at the MidPoint Indie Summer show on Fountain Square. The Sundresses join Wussy and Queen City Radio (featuring members of Turnbull ACs, 500 Miles to Memphis and Denial) on the impressive bill. The show is free and begins at 8 p.m.

Editor's Note: Brian Penick of local music promotions company The Counter Rhythm Group is guest blogging for CityBeat monthly to provide a behind-the-scenes look at his journey to release his interactive industry guidebook,Musicians’ Desk Reference.

We are very much in the trenches right now! Keeping afloat amongst a sea of deadlines is a feat in and of itself. And while we typically do not doubt ourselves here at The Counter Rhythm Group, we are quite impressed to bear witness the amount of information being processed within the schedule we have upheld.

This past week I did something that I never thought I would do with Musicians’ Desk Reference — I printed it out! Well, part of it at least. I was simply amazed at the amount of pages and text that printed, so much that I had to refill the printer several times with new reams of paper and even with new ink cartridges.

Through several stages of copy editing and revisions we are finally starting to show how massive this project really is. I knew somewhat early on that it was going to be a wealth of information and documentation (as demonstrated by my inability to stick to the five-page limit set by my high school teachers), but this is far beyond what I imagined.

The interesting thing about all of this — beyond the content — is the fact that the entire workload is customizable to the user. If an artist wants to check every item on a list to recall all potential information, they could be in for several nights’ worth of preparation and work. However, the opposite is also true, as we have built MDR to allow both the beginner and the full-time touring musician to grab a single doc on the go with minimal effort. Maybe I have just been staring at the same set of screens for too long, but it still seems impressive after working on it for over two years!

The rest of the month will see us continually chopping away at content and revisions, plus document sign-offs and content uploads. We are also starting to work out some specifics for the national release and promotional campaigns, which is enough excitement to keep me going like a kid on the night before Christmas morning.

Every day that this project gets closer to release, the potential impact seems to grow exponentially and that is reward enough keep us awake and help pull us through all of these longs days and late nights.

I am going to make this my shortest blog entry yet, because there is still so much work to do. Unfortunately, I have had to remove myself from much of the live music world that I enjoy so very much over the past few months. While this trend will likely continue through most of the summer for me, I hope that you all are able to get out and support the local music scene.

We are very fortunate to live in this city with all of its talent and available venues. While you may not be able to contribute as much to the music industry and independent artists around here as you would like to, a simple start is to go see a show, buy a piece of merch and tell an artist “thank you” for doing what they do. The music industry is not an easy place to find success. We are trying to create a platform that informs and eases the process, but it cannot move forward without the support and contribution from the fans.

The twosome’s project, “Scroll Improvisation,” features
Hedges creating music on the fly with a mix of live and recorded
material, while Lin crafts a large “scroll drawing” on the floor.
According to the press release, “The piece will investigate the function
and history of narrative Chinese scrolls in a contemporary fashion
while exploring the idea of the western living room as a venue for
improvisational ambient and Folk music.” (Lin is a native of China.)

More from the CAC: "In the west, the living room has long
been a venue for intimate performances of music for family and friends
using inexpensive hand-held instruments. Traditional Chinese living
rooms contain a scroll featuring calligraphy and painting. Both western
acoustic music and eastern paper scrolls tell stories, reinforce family
identities and values. Scroll Improvisation investigates the
relationship of music and art, narrative quality of Chinese scrolls,
notation and recording, cultural identity and control."

Monday’s special performance begins at 8 p.m. and is free and open to the public. For more information, visit contemporaryartscenter.org.